Top Stories 
Published On May 3, 2006
POLICY
Blood Count
The need for—and dearth of—one precious commodity.
2
Seconds that pass until another American needs a transfusion
4,500,000
Number of American lives saved each year by transfusions
48
Gallons of blood an American could donate if she began giving at age 17 and gave every 56 days until reaching age 76
5
Estimated annual percentage of eligible Americans who donate
500,000
Number of Americans who donated in the days following the September 11 attacks
29,000,000
Number of units of blood components transfused in 2001 (a single donation can be divided into plasma, platelets and red blood cells)
2
Times as likely heart patients are to die after a transfusion to treat blood loss or anemia as heart patients who do not receive a transfusion, possibly because of such problems as artery disease aggravated by the transfusion.
Dispatches
What Makes a Kid Clumsy? More research into coordination disorders shows why some children are more prone to trip, fumble and spill the milk.
Eyes in the Sky Satellite data can be used to assess the health impact of dust storms and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Additional applications could be on the horizon.
Could This One Change Help Curb the Opioid Crisis? To prescribe an effective bridge to addiction treatment, emergency physicians must get special training and receive a waiver. Making that process easier—or eliminating the requirement altogether—could make a big impact.
One Thing Leads to the Next Robert Lefkowitz is best known for revealing the mechanism behind hundreds of drugs in use today. But he thinks of himself as a storyteller first and has a new book out to make his case.
Podcast: The Research Year That Was Medical research labs have faced a difficult stretch of closed buildings and competing priorities. Yet they have also produced milestone discoveries—and not only on COVID-19.
The Shape of Us Two milestone discoveries in protein modeling promise to change the fundamentals of drug discovery.
Universal Flu Vaccines Move Forward In the shadow of coronavirus vaccine development, another vaccine was making solid progress.
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